An unusual prisoner
by Valice
Summary: Sp/SPN crossover. The Winchesters capture Valkyrie Cain because they think she's a demon. I'm not a native english speaker and this is my first fanfiction so please go easy on me, constructive criticism would be great! Slight AU, now that TDOTL is out!
1. Chapter 1

An unusual prisoner

·Dean·

They had captured the girl about two hours ago in a dark street about half an hour from the bunker. She had caught his attention because she had jumped of a high building like it was a sofa on a child's birthday. So a demon, obviously. Or so he'd thought.

They needed information, so they attacked. But surprisingly it hadn't been the binding handcuffs that brought her down, but a punch against her head. So not a demon.

But what was she then? He and Sam had decided to take her to the bunker to lock her up there and find out. Hopefully it was something demon-like so he could exorcise it and safe the day, because unnatural or not he couldn't deny how hot she was.

"Dean?" Sam entered the room. "She's awake now. Let's go to work?"

·Valkyrie·

The room was empty apart from the chair she was cuffed to. It stood in the middle of a circle that was drawn on the ground. There were other symbols too, they looked quite old.

"Oh you gotta be kidding me", she groaned. She had been kidnapped by some idiotic Satanist or something, really? She had a damn psychopath to catch; she had absolutely no time for this!

And then the door opened. Two men came in, they looked good but the portable desk they rolled in the cell kind of destroyed the image. There were several instruments and bottles on it and none of them looked _good_. Her head was still hurting so she didn't bother searching for a witty phrase, so she just repeated: "Oh you GOTTA be kidding me!"

"Not really", the shorter one said. Although- short? He was almost as tall as Skulduggery, his companion even taller. "Tell us what you are and none of this will be necessary", he continued and pointed at the tools on the table. She raised an eyebrow. "What?"

He moved fast, took a bottle, opened it and spilled the water all over her face. She flinched in surprise. "Oh come on", she muttered.

"So not a demon"

"Right", the taller one said. "Let's try something else then."

·Dean·

Several minutes, liquids, knifes and other stuff later they slowly ran out of options. The girl had gone quiet about then minutes ago, more out of annoyance than anything. It was frustrating. They'd been hunting their whole life and now this girl made them look like amateurs. He sighed. All he'd wanted was a normal hunt, a normal interrogation, and a situation he knew how to handle. He needed a good day once in a while, too, and now almost more than ever.

She appeared to be human, but she couldn't be. Though he'd already tried it he took, in lack of other options, the demon knife again. He stepped closer to her and cut her arm, she stiffened but apart from that she didn't respond. The frustration overcame him and he went to cut her again, but Sam stepped in. "Hey, stop it!" He gave him a sign and they walked out of the cell. When he closed the door, he saw how she slightly relaxed.

"You gotta calm down, man", Sam said but Dean didn't respond.

"We tried everything; we did it your way, Dean, now we'll try it my way. Think you can do that?"

"Yeah, sure, whatever. Let's talk to the monster, hell of a plan, Sammy!"

"We don't know if she's a monster, Dean."

"Yeah, then what is she?"

"I don't know, but neither do you. So we'll talk to her."

"Awesome."

"Have you reached Cas yet?"

"No, he's probably busy. Now let's get this over with, yeah?"


	2. Chapter 2

**Argh, I'm so sorry this took so long..!**

**I mostly blame Windows updates who delete my stuff and school, but nevertheless I apologize.**

**Hopefully the next chapter will be online sooner..**

**THANK YOU for the nice reviews! :)**

**By the way, sadly I still don't own anything but my imagination, all the characters belong to other people...**

**Hope you ike this one! :)**

The interrogation

·Valkyrie·

The door opened again and they came back into the cell. Her headache had gotten worse and the cuts were still burning and started to itch. She was so not in shape for another round.

But to her surprise the short-haired idiot who had attacked her just a few minutes ago just glared at her and pushed the desk to the wall. His long-haired friend brought in two chairs and they sat down facing her. The idiot was clearly in a very bad mood. Good.

"What, you gonna stare me to death now, knifes are to boring?" She saw the anger flickering over his face. "Hey, don't look so pissed, you're the one who kidnapped me, remember?"

Before he could reply his friend interrupted. "Fair enough. Now let's talk. You probably know who we are?"

"Why on earth should I even want to know who you are?"

"Well, then let us introduce ourselves", the tall one said. "I am Sam Winchester; this is my brother, Dean. It's our job to hunt monsters and demons and we're quite good at it."

"Ah, sorry to disappoint but I'm not a demon and since I'm the only one in this room who hasn't tortured anyone in the last view minutes I wouldn't say that I'm the monster, either."

"Then what are you?" Dean asked sharply. Valkyrie raised an eyebrow. Wow, this guy really was short-tempered.

·Dean·

Why couldn't she just answer the question? It had looked like a routine case at first and now it was just annoying. _She_ was annoying.

Valkyrie sighed. "I'm not quite sure what you want me to say. My name is Valkyrie Cain, I'm 25 years old and I am a detective. I hunt and arrest killers, psychopaths and if you don't let me go, you two. And yes, I'm quite good at it, too." The sarcastic undertone in the last sentence was more than obvious. "Bitch", he thought. Of course Sam, who was probably thinking the same, managed to find words to keep the situation stable and civilised.

"Well Valkyrie, as impressive as that is- you still haven't answered my question. We don't want to know _who_ you are, at least that's not our priority, we want to know _what_ you are.

And please don't say a detective now, we know that much", he added with a to him obviously fake charming smile. She snorted like she didn't buy the smile, too.

"Weird question, gotta say. Well, I'm human, if that's what you're asking. If not would you please specify the question?" The smile she gave them was less believable than Sam's.

"So to you it is perfectly normal that humans jump off buildings?" Dean wanted to know now.

"Well, that depends. A few people do, sure. Jumping off a building is quite popular when it comes to suicide. And then there are bungee-jumpers and-"

"And what if you don't have a bungee-rope?" Dean interrupted. God, she was so annoying! "I mean is it normal to jump off a high building without any protection like it's nothing?"

·Valkyrie·

"No, I guess not", she said as neutral as possible. But inside her thoughts were going crazy.

It had been stupid to give them her name, but she was tired and didn't want them to start torturing her again. But now she had only a few options left. She could either tell them everything, that she was human but also had the advantage of being a sorcerer and hope they didn't kill her here and now. Or she could play dumb, risking new torture but buying more time for Skulduggery to find her. That was probably the only real option. Or not, but right now it seemed to be the right thing to do. She wouldn't tell them.

"You guess not?" Sam asked. "Then how can you explain that we saw you do just that?"

"I don't know. I can't remember jumping of a building lately, and something as final as that- I don't know, doesn't sound like something I'd forget."

"So you deny that you jumped off one today?"

"Yeah, guess I do"

It was clearly written in Dean's face that all he wanted to do was punch her, and although Sam hid it better he was probably thinking the same thing. "Then what did you do today?" He asked now.

"Well first I got up, obviously, brushed my teeth, and took a shower, got dressed, stuff like that. Had breakfast. Went through some files, looked for clues at a murder scene, found out who the killer was, tried to arrest him, got imprisoned by you two psychos- you know the rest."

"All by yourself?" They didn't know Skulduggery so his reputation wouldn't help her here.

"What can I say, I prefer working alone."

"And this killer you were speaking of-?"

"Oh, no big deal, just some B- criminal without any reputation whose murders were more happy accidents than based on plans."

"Happy accidents?"

"For him, obviously!"

·Dean·

Haha, very funny… He decided that he had done everything he could, stood up and walked towards the door. He looked at Sam. "You got this?"

"Yeah, sure man" He nodded and left the room. He walked through the bunker without a plan, picked up a beer and finally ended up in one of the archives. Because he had nothing better to do he went through some of the files. And then he found the one that changed everything. "Sorcerers", it said on the label. "You gotta be kidding me!" he thought, sat down and started to read.

About seventy years ago the Men Of Letters had heard rumors about a subculture to humanity. People who were human but had special powers and didn't seem to age. In the end they had stopped the research from one day to the other because it sounded too weird for them. Yeah sure. Dean was pretty sure that they hadn't stopped their research because of the weirdness of some stories!

He left the archive and went back to the dungeon. He interrupted Sam who was asking something when he opened the door and, while ignoring Valkyrie completely, gave him the file. While Sam was reading he couldn't stop himself from glancing at the women who was still cuffed to the chair. Now that there was the possibility that she wasn't a monster she suddenly looked so much nicer and her behavior seemed so much cooler and understandable. She coughed him staring at her and without thinking about it he gave her a quick smile.

She just glared at him, anger in her eyes. Very dark and pretty eyes, he thought, but only for a moment because the rage inside them brought him back to reality very quickly.

He looked away, back at Sam, who was almost done reading the file. The confusion on his face was a perfect picture of what was going on in Dean.

And then, when he closed the file and opened his mouth to speak the door flew open and a man entered the room, a man in a suit, a hat on his head and a ridiculous moustache. He was oddly skinny and had a gun in his hand.


	3. Chapter 3

**Sorry for the long break, I was in Portugal and had no WiFi.**

**Thank you for all the nice reviews, they make me happy whenever I see them! :)**

**I hope you like the 3rd chapter!**

**BTW I am not only extremly happy about every review, I'm also open for criticism, language-/spelling-/and storywise, whatever comes to your mind that you think I could improve. And again, I'm not a native english speaker so sorry for every mistake and wrong used word! :D**

**Disclamer: (Sadly) I still own nothing, neither Supernatural nor Skulduggery Pleasant (though I'd love to)**

Not A Monster

·Valkyrie·

Skulduggery, being his usual self, had managed to get all of them out of the cell in less than ten minutes and for some reason the boys hadn't put up much of a fight. At least Sam looked a bit embarrassed and she wondered if it had anything to do with the file Dean had given him.

Now they were sitting at a long table in something that looked like the main room.

"So why exactly did you kidnap my partner?" Skulduggery asked. Dean, who hadn't looked at her since they'd left the cell looked up and said: "Because we thought it was our job!"

"And why would you think that?" Skulduggerys voice was calm but she saw how Dean on the other hand struggled to stay calm. "Because we are hunters and it's our job to protect humanity from the monsters they think are just stories."

"Oh", Skulduggery said. "I understand." He understood? Valkyrie raised an eyebrow. "Well, good for you 'cause I don't."

Skulduggery looked at her. "You know that there are monsters. You've met some pretty nasty ones, too. And you know that some of our people, like Gracious and Donegan, hunt them. But some mortals do too. They call themselves hunter because basically that's what they are."

"Okay, but they asked me if I was a demon. I thought they didn't exist!"

"Well, to us they don't. What they call demons we call an upper class or Remnants.

"So why didn't you tell me about them?"

"Because there was no point. They're mortals; we stay out of their business. They don't know about us and we'd like to keep it that way."

"Was that a threat?" Dean asked angrily.

"Hm? Oh no, of course not, why would I threaten you?"

"Well, 'we'd like to keep it that way' kinda sounded like a threat." Sam said.

Skulduggery tilted his head. "You're right, sorry for that." Dean didn't look like he believed him.

"So you know what we do and who we are, now we'd really appreciate it if you'd tell us a bit about yourselves." Skulduggery nodded.

"Valkyrie and I are sorcerers, Elementals to be precisely. We are basically human, but we have the ability to manipulate the four elements to a certain degree."

To Valkyrie's surprise they actually seemed to believe him.

Sam nodded. "We just found a file about you; we just wanted to make sure that you were telling the truth.

•Dean•

After the crucial part of the question who/ what they were was answered, Dean's thoughts started to drift off. Not because he didn't care, more because he didn't want to listen to Sam and Skulduggery chatting. Because essentially, that was what they were doing. In less than five minutes they had gone from an interrogation-like question-asking to chatting.

Sure, they were no demons, but was that enough to make them reliable? No, Dean was gonna stay out of this and Sam would have to give him the cliff notes afterwards.

While talking, he had focused on Skulduggery mostly, but now he started looking around pointlessly. Until he found something else to focus on.

Valkyrie didn't seem to be listening any more, too. She looked like he felt, confused and unwilling to just forget what had happened so far. Not that he could blame her, she probably had more rights to be pissed than he had, though he would never admit that.

She looked up and caught him staring at her. She raised an eyebrow and gave him a mocking smile. Dean just rolled his eyes and looked away. He felt her stare on him for a little while longer, and then she suddenly turned her attention on something else.

" Ahm, Skulduggery, could we talk somewhere alone for just a sec? "She asked perplexed. "Sure", he said and they both stood up and left the room. Sam sighed. Dean looked at his brother. "So what's up?"

"You weren't listening, were ya? " Sam grinned. "Just tell me what happened already, would you? " Dean replied and ignored the mock in his brother's voice.

"Well, since it's quite late already and it's our fault that they are here, I asked them if they would like to stay here tonight."

"What?! " Dean asked startled. "Why not? We have enough guestrooms to open up a damn motel, and there's none of them nearby, either. They'd have to drive for at least an hour, if they hurry!"

"So? We kidnapped her, Sammy, for god's sake. You don't ask someone you kidnapped if they want to stay, that's like asking someone you killed if they want a coffee!"

"So, weirder things have happened to us", Sam said with a simple shrug. Dean looked at him in disbelief; but before he could say something else the door opened again and Valkyrie and Skulduggery came back into the room.

Valkyrie looked like she'd just got sentenced to death, Skulduggery like he'd already gone through the execution.

Valkyrie forced a smile on her face and Skulduggery said happily: „If you'd have us, we'd love to stay!" Then he realized that both the brothers were staring at him.

Valkyrie's smile vanished and instead she frowned at her partner. Then she said: "Oh, Skulduggery, your façade!"

•Valkyrie•

Valkyrie sat on a couch in the living room. It probably wasn't the living room, but she didn't care much. It had a rather comfortable couch, that was all that counted for. She still had to grin when she thought at the boys looks when they'd seen Skulduggery come out of that room with just a skull for a face. They got over it very quickly though, a walking and talking skeleton just another unusual thing on the long list of unusual things that had happened today.

She was reading in one of the many books in the bunker; it was a general overview over the most common creatures and monsters. When she read the reports about reapers, she had to laugh. There, on the page, the illustrator had drawn a Cleaver.

She looked up from the book to show it to Skulduggery, but and Sam were still discussing something. She rolled her eyes with a smile and continued reading.

Then Dean opened the door and walked in. He had three beer bottles in his hands. He gave one to Sam and looked at Skulduggery. "I take it you don't drink?"

"Or eat or sleep", Skulduggery replied. Dean nodded, hesitated and walked over to her. "What about you?"

Sam and Skulduggery looked at her. It was a peace offering, Dean's way of apologizing, she knew that. It would make everything so much easier, and Valkyrie wasn't angry any more anyway, she was just sulking on principle. As soon as she realized this, she felt childish and quickly grabbed the beer. Sam and Skulduggery continued their conversation and when she smiled at Dean, he smiled back, obviously relieved. She closed the book and put it aside and he sat down. He took a sip of his beer as if he wasn't sure what he should say.

"Just wanted to say that I'm sorry."

"For what again? " Valkyrie grinned.

"Hey, watch it Cain, I don't usually do this kinda thing so take what you get and be happy about it!"

She laughed, and after a few seconds his tension left him and he joined in.

"So we're good? "He grinned.

"Yeah, we're good!"

•Dean•

Now that it didn't look like she was gonna get up and kill him any second, he actually enjoyed Valkyrie's company. Because now that she wasn't tied to a chair, she had no problems with answering most of his questions.

"So where are you from? "He asked. "Ireland, I grew up near Dublin. "She replied. "And your parents, what do they think about all this? Though they're probably into magic too, I mean naming you Valkyrie..."

She laughed. "They didn't name me Valkyrie. And up until a few years ago they had no idea that magic exists."

"Then Valkyrie isn't your real name?"

"'Course it is, it's just not my given name!"

Dean raised an eyebrow. "Did you really think that sentence was gonna clear things up? "He asked.

"You assume that everyone has one name. But we sorcerers think that everyone has three. Valkyrie it my taken name. I took it to protect my given name. Because if you don't take one, a sorcerer who knows how can use it against you and make you do things, like sit down or stand up."

"And the third name? "He asked; this was quite interesting and could be very useful for the future.

"That's your true name. You don't know it, but it's there and a sorcerer who knows it has access to great power. But if you don't seal it, it can be used against you as well, just more fatal. If someone knows your true name he or she can control you in any way, actions, emotions, anything."

"And this taken name prevents that from happening, too?"

"Now that would be too easy, wouldn't it? No, that's much more complicated, and you need to know the name yourself before you can do it. There are only a handful people known that knew theirs, though, so I wouldn't worry about it!"

She smiled, but it seemed kind of forced, but it was probably just his imagination combined with the light in the room.

"So you named yourself Valkyrie, why?"

"Oh, it was just something a friend of mine said that inspired me to it."

"And Cain?"

"That was Skulduggery, when I met him; one of the first things he said to me was that I share his talent for rising Cain."

She smiled again, and now it was 100% real.

After all, it had been a nice evening. Sam and Skulduggery had discussed and discussed, and Dean wondered that there were still problems left that they hadn't talked about.

His and Valkyrie's conversation hadn't been that sophisticated, but they had laughed quite a lot and he had realized how great it was to talk to someone apart from Sam and Cas.

They had gone to bed late, but although he had had his usual nightmares Dean was in a good mood when he woke up the next morning. Though morning was probably the wrong word, it was already 11:30 am. He got up, took a quick shower, got dressed and walked into the kitchen. He took out some cornflakes, a bowl and milk. When he was just about to put some cornflakes in the bowl, Valkyrie walked in. "Morning", she said, her voice still a little sleepy.

He grinned. "Morning", he answered and took another bowl from the shelf and gave it to her. Armed with cornflakes they left the kitchen and walked into the main room. Skulduggery sat there and read a book. He looked up when they came in. "Slept well? "He asked. "Yeah, more or less", he replied. Valkyrie just sat down next to Skulduggery, put her feet on the side of his chair, yawned and started eating. Dean sat down too and Skulduggery continued reading. Sam joined them a few minutes later; after breakfast Skulduggery and Valkyrie decided to stay another hour. Three hours later they said they'd just stay for five more minutes. In the evening Dean offered to make a few burgers and they decided to leave afterwards.

Four days later, Cas suddenly appeared in the main room while they were eating Chinese food. He looked at the two sorcerers in surprise and asked: "Who are they?"

And Sam answered: "They kinda live here now!"


	4. Chapter 4

**First of all, thank you for all the kind reviews; they're what keeps me going.**

**I guess with TDOTL out now, this story is very AU, since *SPOILER* Valkyrie is still an Elemental and some other stuff. I'm gonna keep it that way though; otherwise the story wouldn't work out any more…**

They kinda live here now

·Valkyrie·

She had to say, whoever this guy way exactly, he took it well.

He didn't even ask for an explanation, but they gave him one anyway. They told him about how the brothers had kidnapped her and how it turned out to be a not so minor misunderstanding and, since Valkyrie and Skulduggery had nowhere they had to go or be, and Sam and Dean were more than happy to have some company other than each other, how they decided to stay.

They didn't tell them why they had no reason to leave, though, and he didn't ask. She saw the question in his eyes anyway but decided to ignore it.

And when they found out that he was an angel, a real angel, which became so much more interesting than her own problems.

For the next two weeks they spend their time mostly chatting and reading. She and Skulduggery squeezed in a training every now and then and threw fire at each other, or water, or whatever they were in the mood to.

It normally caused the others to stop and stare when they literally worked their magic and sometimes they joined in for fight training. Apart from that, Valkyrie spent most of her time going through the stuff in the bunker or with Dean. She almost forgot about the whole Darquesse-disaster for once.

It was nice to talk to people who didn't know what she'd done and she feared the day when they'd find out.

But after some time she became restless. She'd never really been one for research and she ached for some adventure.

"I wanna do something!" she told Skulduggery one evening when they were sitting in the main room. She had just finished a chapter about demon exorcisms and all the Latin had given her a headache.

He looked up from his book. "Heard you the first time, Val! If you want to do something, do something."

"And what?"

"I don't know, I bet there's a cinema or something nearby, ask Sam or Dean."

"But I don't want to go to a cinema, I want some action!"

"Bored too?" That wasn't Skulduggery's voice. She turned around, saw Dean and shrugged.

"Well, me too, so I'll leave tomorrow morning, I found a case a few hours from here, wanna come?"

She grinned. "Sure!"

So it was settled, she'd go on a monster hunt with Dean Winchester.

They left quite early the next morning, each with a duffel bag with fresh clothes, some money, their fake badges and Valkyrie decided despite Skulduggery's enthusiasm towards it not to bring any books from the bunker.

"Have fun", Skulduggery said with a smile in his voice.

"Promised", Valkyrie replied. She dumped her duffel back into the trunk of the Impala and got in shotgun next to Dean, who was talking to his brother. Sam stood next to the car, a wide grin on his face.

"Looking forward to a break from your brother?" Valkyrie laughed.

"Hell yeah!" Sam answered. Dean frowned. "Well then see ya bitch!"

"Take care, jerk!"

Dean smiled and started the ignition. After driving in a Bentley Valkyrie was kind of spoiled when it came to cars, but she immediately loved the sound of the Impala's engine.

"You like it?" Dean asked.

"Yes, not the Bentley but close to it!"

"You drive a _Bentley_?"

"No, but Skulduggery does. So what's this case about and how long is it gonna take us to get there?"

"We should be there in at least five hours."

Valkyrie sighed. "What?" Dean asked.

"Nothing, I'm just not the most patient one!"

"Well then we should better not let this drive get boring", he said with a charming smile. Valkyrie laughed. "So, the case?"

"Yes, right, the case." His smile turned into more of a grin at her reaction. "So this guy was found dead in his house the night after his promotion party."

"Cause of death?"

"None"

"Sorry?" Valkyrie frowned. "If he's dead there has to be a reason for it!"

"And that's why we're going!"

·Dean·

They talked for the whole ride and arrived in the small town Dean immediately forgot the name of after just a little over four hours. He drove onto the small parking lot of the motel. "I get a room, you the bags?" he proposed.

"Sure", Valkyrie smiled and they both got out of the car. He threw her the keys and headed towards the reception. The woman behind the desk stared at the TV as if she was hypnotized, so he didn't bother with trying to be extra charming. Valkyrie already stood next to the door to the main building with both their duffel bags. He smiled, took his bag and led the way to the motel room.

"Let's suit up and head over to the morgue, okay?"

Half an hour later they drove over to the morgue. He wore his suit and Valkyrie the black outfit she'd worn when they'd first met. "It's armored", she explained. "It won't let anything through."

They both walked up to the desk without hesitation, like they belonged there and did this every day. Which, at least in Dean's case, was almost true.

"Hi, I'm agent Michaels, FBI" He showed the girl behind the desk his badge. "And I`m agent Edgley, also FBI" Valkyrie said and took out her badge as well. "We would like to take a look at your healthy dead." The girl frowned. "Why is the FBI interested in this?"

"Well, we were nearby and you know the FBI, Miss-" he checked her name on the name tag on the desk. "-Kelly. Always wanting to help." He gave her his most charming smile and she blushed. Valkyrie sighed at this reaction and Dean fought back a laugh.

Miss Kelly let them to the corpse and gave them the files; she then excused herself, reluctantly whenever her eyes met Dean, and got back to her desk.

"So, shall we take a look?" Dean grinned. Valkyrie nodded and he kept looking at her while he lifted the blanket covering the body. Yes, she'd told him about a few cases she and Skulduggery had worked (his favorite was the one with the love struck goblin), but still he wasn't sure how she'd react to an actual corpse. As it turned out, not at all at first. She just looked at the body lying in front of her, scanning his facial expressions and analyzing it.

His face was the obvious eye catcher. He was muscular and looked like a fighter, but the face was the only hint they got that something unnatural had caused his death. The man must have suffered through a great agony, the expression on his face spoke of the pain that he must have felt.

"Oh shit", Dean murmured. Valkyrie frowned. "This looks familiar; I have seen something like this before. I just can't put my finger on it."

She took a small bag out of her pocket. "Its rainbow powder", she explained. ""It'll change its color if magic has been involved here." He nodded and watched as she put some of the powder on the body. It started red immediately. "Well that's a yes…" Valkyrie sighed. Then she suddenly had a very concentrated look on her face. "What is it?" Dean asked.

"We should go, someone's coming and they're coming fast."

He nodded and saw her move her fingers and the red dust flew off the body and into the trashcan.

·Valkyrie·

They left the building through the back door and hurried towards the Impala, which was parked right in front of the building. There was a black car parked next to it now that hadn't been there when they'd arrived. While going past it, Valkyrie spotted the familiar form of a cleaver on the back seat. She looked away immediately and kept her head down. Dean shot her a look but said nothing. Valkyrie knew though that she had some explaining to do now.

"This calls for a drink and burgers, don't ya think?" Dean said. It was his way of saying 'we need to talk' she guessed and nodded.

To calm herself she recalled the dead man's face in her head and tried to remember where and when she'd seen something like this before.

She got lost in her thoughts and didn't realize that Dean had pulled over onto the parking lot of a cheap diner until he stopped the car.

They sat down at a table; Dean ordered a cheeseburger with extra bacon and Valkyrie a chicken burger.

"So", Dean said. "Wanna tell me something?"

"Wanna is a big word, use gonna, it's more fitting", she replied.

"Alright, _gonna_ tell me something?"

Valkyrie decided to give him a minimum of information. She could always say more but she could not take anything back once she'd said it.

"Our dead guy way probably a sorcerer, at least he was killed by one. The American sanctuary is investigating, so his death must be important."

"That's your government, right? How do you know it was them and not any other sorcerer?"

"They had a cleaver with them." She saw his questioning look and explained. "They are trained fighters and they're the sanctuary's military and executive force."

"But I don't get it Val. Why didn't you want to see them? You're a detective, too. Aren't they like your colleagues or something?"

"Yeah, they don't really like me…"

"So? You're not the type of person who stands down from a case just because of some douche who doesn't like you!"

Valkyrie tilted her head and asked in a mocking voice: "How do you know which type of person I am?" It might have been the light, but she could've sworn that he blushed slightly.

"Anyway, your right, I'm not planning on giving up this case, I'd just like to work it without them knowing that I'm here."

"Why?"

"It's a long story."

"We have time!"

Their burgers came and they ate in silence. When they'd both finished their food, Dean asked again.

"Why?"

·Dean·

When he heard the reluctance in Valkyrie's voice, he almost interrupted and told her that it didn't matter, but stopped himself at the last moment, because it obviously did.

"Remember what I told you about the three names a person has?" she asked and he nodded.

"Well, when I was 14 sensitives all around the globe started having visions about a powerful sorceress called Darquesse, and in those visions she destroyed the world. She burned down cities and murdered thousands of people.

And a few weeks later, I found out that Darquesse was actually my true name."

Dean's eyes widened. Was she telling him that she was about to destroy the world? He realized that she spoke faster now, like she just wanted to get it over with.

"I obviously never had the slightest interest in destroying the world, so I sealed my name so that no one would be able to use it against me. And before I did that I didn't tell anyone about it, not even Skulduggery. But after a few years she started to become kind of an independent person inside my head, my very bad mood with a mind of its own.

A few weeks after my 18th birthday I encountered a few witches and they weakened me by cutting off several limbs and stuff, and Darquesse managed to take control over my body and locked me up inside my head.

It was horrible and she did a lot of bad. Skulduggery and a few others helped putting me back in control again and Darquesse was defeated short after this, but although she's gone for good I'm obviously still the one to blame. That's the reason why Skulduggery and I left Ireland in the first place, with all the guilt I couldn't stand seeing the faces of those that nearly got killed or those who lost someone because of it every day."

By now she was focusing on the table in front of her like her life depended on it, but now she looked up again.

"And the American sanctuary never liked me anyway, so they'd never be happy to see me", she finished very anticlimactic.

He nodded. There was probably more to the story, but the guilt in her eyes reminded him of when Sam had found out that he'd been possessed by Gadreel and he now one or two things about losing control himself. So he decided to give her a free pass.

He smiled at her. "Ah, we've all been there, right?"

She looked surprised but smiled. "Have we?"

"Kind of a work disease I guess."

"Yes, probably. I figured out where I've seen something like our dead guy before by the way."

"Good news?"

"Not really…"

**I hope you liked it, please review if you want to! :D**

**Ideas where she's seen something similar? (It's in the books)**

**Also, I developed this obsession over the past few months, Deakyrie or Valdean or whatever you want to call it (it all sounds pretty stupid…). And since I just hit a huge writer's block on this story I'm thinking about starting an "insert whatever ship name you prefer" one shot collection, any thoughts on that? I hope to start it soon, but school keeps me pretty occupied at the moment… **

**Valice ;)**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey, it's been a while, I know and I'm sorry, I blame school for the long break.**

**I hope you enjoy the new chapter, and I started a One Shot collection (SPN/SP crossover again), so if you want to make me happy check it out and R&amp;R! ;)**

**Thank you for the reviews, they are what keeps me going!**

Research

·Valkyrie·

Now that had gone better than she'd expected. Dean knew most of what had happened and he didn't even seem to be a little pissed. Now that the nervousness was gone, she didn't know why she'd told him all this though. There would have been ways to give him a satisfying answer without revealing her darkest secret, why hadn't she thought of a different answer. Sure, he had reacted a lot better than she had expected, but nevertheless it had been stupid.

She sighed; she didn't want to think about this anymore. Sure, she hadn't felt that relieved in a long time and she was so, so glad that Dean had taken it so well, but it scared her a bit that his opinion of her actions mattered so much to her, she'd only met him a few weeks ago after all.

Instead, she concentrated on the case.

Now that she remembered it seemed so obvious. For years this face had haunted her in her dreams, sometimes it was still part of her nightmares. The face of the old administrator, the one Serpine had killed all those years ago. She could still recall the pain she had seen on his face in all details, and it had been the same pain she'd seen on the dead man's face as well.

"It was magic, that's for sure. I only know one person who could do this, and he died years ago."

"How does it work?" Dean asked. They were driving back to the motel, breaking the speed limit the whole time.

"I'm not sure, it is necromancy though. The guy I knew had this power in his right hand, spells had been worked on it and as a result it was skinless, but he could kill anyone through the sheer amount of pain he inflicted on them just by pointing at them. Needless to say that he wasn't a really nice guy."

"Yeah, no, he sounds lovely," Dean deadpanned.

"And you think someone like him killed this guy?"

"Sure as hell looks like it."

"Do you have a way to find out if there's someone who could do that?"

Valkyrie smiled. "I'll call in some old favors."

·Dean·

They were back in the motel and he was sitting at the small table with his laptop, searching for similar cases. Valkyrie sat on one of the beds, dialing Skulduggery's number.

"Hey," he heard her say. "Yes, yes we're fine; it's very sweet that you worry though." She was silent, and then she laughed. "Sure you do. Listen, so we went to the morgue and took a look at the corpse and it was kinda weird. First of all we had to leave because the American Sanctuary showed up- No. No I don't know who it was; we left before I could see a detective. They had a cleaver with them though, so it has to be important. Yeah I know, detectives who take cleavers to an investigation are douchebags, yes. _Anyway_, that was not the weird thing. The guy looked like he was killed by Serpine.

Yes, of course I know that he's dead, I was there when you killed him, remember? I don't mean him personally, I mean someone with the same power.

No, but I wanted to call her, just wanted to check with you if you have heard anything about it. Yes, I'll tell you later. Bye."

She hung up. "So he has no idea?"

"None whatsoever, but there's someone else who might now."

She dialed again. "Hey China, missed me?"

Dean was still looking for other cases, Valkyrie and China?, whatever, had been chatting for one and a half hours now. He had stopped listening a while ago. Out of the corner of his eye he saw her hang up and he looked up. "So, anything interesting?"

"Yes, though most of it isn't relevant for the case. "

"But there is something?"

"Yes. There've been other cases like this one all over the world over the past few weeks.

Dean frowned. "Really? I didn't find anything."

Valkyrie tilted her head. "Yeah, we have some people who keep stuff like this out of the news."

He raised an eyebrow. That sounded too much like a dungeon full of reporters. As if she'd read his mind, she grinned. "Don't worry, we don't hurt anyone. There are some sensitives who work for the sanctuary who can let you forget certain things, or convince you that you didn't see something that you did see, stuff like his. That's everything."

"Sounds helpful," Dean answered, still not sure if that was very reassuring. If Valkyrie sensed his doubt, she chose to ignore it, she just nodded. "Sure is."

"So are we looking for one serial killer or several killers?"

"All with this power? Highly unlikely," Valkyrie said. Then her phone vibrated. She checked it. "Skulduggery and Sam are on their way to Illinois, there was a similar murder there about two weeks ago. Should we go to the victim's house now?"

Dean nodded; he had planned to go, too.

When they were back in the car he asked: "So this woman, China or what her name was, is she a friend of yours?"

Valkyrie grinned. "At the moment."

Dean glanced at her. What the hell was that supposed to mean?

"No, scratch that, yes, she is a friend. And a quite good one, too. I've known her for years. But she's not just a friend; she's Ireland's grand mage. She's always known a lot of information or rumors, but nowadays there is barely anything going on that she doesn't know about.

"So before she became grand mage she delt with information? No offence, but she doesn't really sound like someone I'd like to rule my country."

"Oh no, before that she owned a library," Valkyrie said with an innocent look on her face, but she laughed when she saw the confusion on his face.

"Believe me, right now she is exactly what we need," Valkyrie continued. "She's clever, not afraid to make quick or unpleasant decisions and she is also quite good at, well, calming people down I guess."

"Somehow most of the people you tell me about seem to be people you don't want as your enemy," he laughed.

Valkyrie grinned. "Well, you wouldn't want me as your enemy either, certainly not Skulduggery, believe me. And don't forget that we used to be the Prime Detectives of the Irish Sanctuary, and we have all fought at least one war. So yeah, I guess you wouldn't like any of us when we're angry."

"Now that's comforting, really," Dean replied in fake shock.

"I think you just drove by the house," Valkyrie suddenly said.

·Valkyrie·

They both got out of the car that Dean had parked, not a hundred percent legal, right in front of the house. All the curtains were closed and the police had still sealed the whole property off. When they'd made sure that no one was watching, Dean went towards the front door, but Valkyrie gave him a sign to follow her.

Walking in through the front door was never a good idea, mostly because the police would notice the broken seal at the door immediately. She went into the garden.

"So how do you plan to get in?" Dean was standing next to her.

She pointed at a window on the second floor. "Very funny," Dean said sarcastically. "And how are we supposed to get up there? There is no tree or anything we could climb."

She just grinned and put her arm around his waist. "Hold on."

"What?" Dean looked at her confused, then at the arm around his waist. "What-"

"Hold. On."

"Ahm-"

"Ah what the hell, it'll work like this."

With that she moved her other hand and pushed against the air. She felt Dean freeze, and then an arm sneaking around her waist as he decided that she'd been right and holding on was the right thing to do. They landed on the small windowsill, and while Valkyrie steadied them and made sure that they wouldn't fall off the sill, Dean picked the lock and opened the window.

They got in and Valkyrie let go of Dean.

"Told ya," she grinned.

"I'm not sure I liked that," Dean replied with a shaky smile.

Valkyrie's grin widened. "Shall we?"

They checked the whole house, every room including the attic and the cellar. Every few minutes Dean would say that he found something, when he saw yet another book about magic or a device that was probably powered by magic. Valkyrie glanced at them and, sadly, always had to tell him that there was nothing suspicious about it.

The only clue they found was an old album. It was hidden behind a few big and heavy books, and when Valkyrie saw it she knew it was important.

On the cover of the album was a family crest, a gorilla with a bow which bowstring was a snake, aiming at the beholder.

"Now we're talking," Valkyrie smiled.

It was getting late, so they decided to go back to the motel and go through the album there.

"So can we at least leave though the door?" Dean asked.

"Doors are for people with no imagination," Valkyrie simply stated and climbed back out of the window. Dean sighed and climbed out too, this time he wrapped his arm around her immediately, and Valkyrie made a step forward, off the windowsill and pulling Dean with her.

Back at the motel they sat down at the small table and Valkyrie opened the album. The first few sites were filled with drawings, they were old and Valkyrie assumed that they were from before photography had been invented.

The sorcerer, his name was Marcus Wrench (charming, huh?), at least that was written on the bottom of the binding, had been a supporter of Mevolent, Valkyrie was sure of it. He had drawings of Mevolent as well as of Serpine and Vengeous, and Valkyrie swallowed hard when she found a drawing of Lord Vile.

At some point the drawings of gory battles and war criminals were replaced by photographs, all older and in black and white.

The only new one was the last picture in the album. When Valkyrie saw it her heart skipped a beat and she stared at the photo in shock. It was a still of a surveillance camera, probably in a gas station or somewhere. He was not in the center of the picture and if one didn't know it, it wasn't obvious that he was the reason for the picture being in this album. But his face was the only thing Valkyrie saw when she looked at it. Because it was a face she would never forget. There, in a gas station next to the newspapers, stood Serpine and looked into the camera.


	6. Chapter 6

**Hi everyone, first of all I'm so sorry for the long break. I don't really have an excuse for it, apart from I'm kinda loosing the interest in this story. Don't worry, I'll finish it, I really hate it myself when people just **_**stop**_**, but that's why this is coming way too late. **

**A big thank you and a virtual hug to everyone who keeps reading anyway, and an even bigger hug to everyone who reviews or follows this story, you guys are the reason I'm continuing this.**

** Bananskugga: You're the best reader one could ask for, really!**

** Warrant-for-Arrest: Thank you so much for the review, I'm not quite sure yet if I'll bring the whole DemonDean thing into this, but something like this is definitely going to happen.**

**Now I'm really sorry if this chapter seems forced, but I just feel like there is so much information to be shared between those four that there is one awkward talk after the other, but it should stop after this chapter, at least for a while, so please bear with me!**

**Disclaimer: You know the drill, no I'm not Kripke and I'm not Landy either, so no I don't own any of the characters. **

Serpine

·Skulduggery·

So Serpine was back. Well, not Serpine himself, but when the guy who was killing those people had the same power he probably wasn't much better. He and Sam were on their way to Illinois, they would be there in about two hours and Skulduggery was driving. He was sure that Sam would have loved to drive, because, let's face it, who wouldn't want to drive this car, but he wouldn't even let Valkyrie drive the Bentley. He would've grinned if he could have; she seemed to have a thing for guys with awesome cars.

"You think it worked out?" Sam asked.

"I don't think so, not yet anyway," Skulduggery answered. No, it hadn't worked out, though it had started out great. Sam had showed Dean the job and then "randomly decided" to stay at the bunker and Skulduggery had given Valkyrie the most boring books he could find so that she would jump at the opportunity to leave the bunker. From there on it had been up to them to finally release some of the tension that had been building between them right from the beginning, but they seemed to be oblivious about the huge crush they had on each other.

It had been a good plan, simple too, but then this idiotic killer had destroyed it all and by the tone of Valkyrie's voice, she had probably told Dean. People always said that Valkyrie was almost perfect at keeping all her thoughts and feelings to herself, but Skulduggery could read her like an open book. And he knew that Dean must've had questions and that Valkyrie had probably told him more than she'd had to.

"Well, it's only been a few hours," Sam said. "Who knows what's happening over there right now?"

"I'd rather not imagine," Skulduggery laughed.

When they arrived their day went on pretty much like Val and Dean's hat started. They got a room, went to the morgue and took a look at the vic. It was a woman in her mid-thirties, plain blond hair, not fat but not slim either, an expression of horror on her face.

"Rebecca Martins," Sam read. "Works in a library 34 years old, not married, no kids." Skulduggery laughed short and bitter. "Yeah, more like Tortura Faith, former scribe of Mevolent, about 340 years old, husband died when she sacrificed him to the Faceless Ones, daughter died as well when she tried a Carrie-like stunt."

"So she's a sorcerer?"

"Well, was a sorcerer," Skulduggery confirmed. "She'd been hiding for decades, looks like someone's found her. And this is definitely Serpine's way of killing."

They went back to the motel. When Sam started his laptop it started beeping.

"It's a mail, Dean sent us a picture. It's a freeze from a surveillance camera."

Skulduggery walked over to Sam and looked at the picture on the screen.

·Sam·

Skulduggery froze. He looked like one of the school skeletons, not moving, no reaction whatsoever.

"Um, are you okay man?" Sam asked. That got Skulduggery out of his trance. Instead of answering though, he took out his phone and dialed.

"Care to explain?" He hesitated. "Wait, I'll put you on speaker. Again please?"

"I don't know," Valkyrie said through the phone. "It was in the album we found at the victim's house. It's a joke, right? I mean it has to be a joke! It can't really be him, he's dead. We saw him die!"

"You'd think so. But if it's a joke it's a really bad one."

"So what's your plan?" Valkyrie asked.

"I'm not entirely sure yet."

"Please don't do anything stupid," Valkyrie pleaded, obviously worried. "And don't you dare go after him alone!"

"'Course not."

"Good. Hold on, I just got an e-mail from China; I sent her the photo as well. It's- well, it hasn't been manipulated and it's no fake. And there was another kill in Dublin, the detectives there are working on it right now, China will tell us everything they find out. Though she's not very confident in their work, apparently Weeper is helping…"

"Oh, really? Looks like they're going desperate without us," Skulduggery replied. "Alright. Here's the plan. It's already too late to really do anything; we stay the night at the motels and let it all sink in. Valkyrie, I want you to give Dean the Serpine 101, can you do that?" Sam could hear her surprise. "You sure?" Skulduggery must've heard it too, because when he spoke again his voice had changed, he could hear the fondness in it. "Yeah I'm sure, it's an open secret anyway!"

Now this promised to get interesting.

·Dean·

Valkyrie hung up. "So, some really deep and heavy story you're gonna tell me?" She sighed. "And that's already the second today. Man, am I good company!" Dean had to laugh. "The things I learn about you guys because of one little case… Well, if we do it all today we don't have to another day." Valkyrie grinned. "That's the spirit!"

Dean sat down on one of the beds. "Alright, shoot!"

Valkyrie sat down on the other bed and leaned back against the headboard.

"Alright, so I already told you who Serpine was, one of Mevolent's generals. And his position included a lot of the dirty work, so when it looked like the sanctuaries were about to win and Mevolent ordered the assassination of their leaders, Serpine got the job to kill Skulduggery. He kidnapped Skulduggery's wife and kid and killed them in front of Skulduggery. In his rage Skulduggery tried to stab him, but the dagger he took was poisoned. It killed him."

Dean stared at her. Memories of Sam getting stabbed all those years ago came flooded back into his head, how he had fallen and Dean had caught him, but it had been too late. He recalled Valkyrie's voice in his head, how worried she'd sounded; now he knew why and he could most definitely relate.

Valkyrie continued telling him about the end of the war, the truce that had followed. He couldn't imagine how frustrating it must've been for Skulduggery to live side by side with his family's murderer. Dean felt oddly satisfied when Valkyrie told him about Serpine's death.

"Well, shit," Dean said when Valkyrie ended the story. "And this son of a bitch is loose again?"

"Apparently, though I have no idea how."

Dean shrugged. "Well, there are enough ways to bring somebody back. Deals, angels, gates- hell, I've died several times myself!"

Valkyrie nodded with a sarcastic smile. "Yeah the good old times when someone's death meant that they wouldn't cause any trouble any more are sadly over. Would be to easy otherwise, wouldn't it?"

Dean laughed. "Yeah, definitely. So, why don't we follow Skulduggery's advice and let it all sink in, I think I saw a not too crappy bar one town over, shall we go?"

"Oh yes, this day definitely calls for a drink!"

·Valkyrie·

They were sitting opposite each other in a small booth, each with a beer and a shot of whiskey.

"Alright," Dean grinned. "Here's to ganking that son of a bitch a second, and hopefully final, time to saving the day, and to probably irrational revenge!"

Valkyrie laughed and raised her glass. "Cheers, I drink to that!"

A few beers and one or two, in Dean's case maybe even five or six shots later, they both felt comfortable calm and a bit dizzy. Dean was in the middle of an imitation of Sam, when the waitress came to their table again.

"And I mean he always complains about his hair, but if he'd just cut it, I mean seriously, just give me five minutes, some clipper…," Dean slurred.

"Hey you two," they were interrupted by the girl who had been waiting their table the whole time. "I hate to kick you two lovebirds out, but my boss says we're closing, so-"

Valkyrie looked at the girl confused. "What? Oh no, I mean we're not-" Dean interrupted her. "Yeah, no, um-"

She laughed. "Alright, alright, calm down, my mistake. You just looked like it."

"Heh, okay", Dean said, squinting his eyes a bit. "Um- thanks, I guess? Ahm, here's your money, keep the change." They awkwardly got out of the booth. When they left the bar, Valkyrie looked back to her and saw her watching them leave with a smirk on her face like she knew something they didn't. It was very annoying.

The cold air hit her like a fist and she immediately felt a bit more sober. They walked over to the Impala, something in the back of Valkyrie's head told her that Dean had drank too much to be in any condition to drive, but something else told her that he was probably used to it by now.

And then suddenly hit the back of her head. She stumbled forward and into Dean, who turned around and caught her. Valkyrie turned around immediately and saw the two men walking towards them. They were wearing hoodies and hid their faces under black scarfs that were wrapped around the lower halves of their faces. Valkyrie summoned a flame in her hand and Dean took out his gun.


	7. Chapter 7

It gets even weirder

·Dean·

The men stopped only a couple of meters away. They didn't say anything, the whole thing started to turn into a freaking staring contest!

Valkyrie next to him still held the flame in her hand and none of their attackers seemed surprised. So sorcerers, probably. Awesome.

"So, Beagle Boys, who are you and what do you want from us?" They ignored Dean and looked at Valkyrie. "Detective, it's so good to finally meet you," the man on the right said.

"Should I know you?" Valkyrie asked, her voice tense.

"No, I don't believe we've met, at least we've never met you. But we've heard about you. The child who melted the skeleton's heart, Pleasant's partner in crime. The girl who already saved the world countless times before she even had the surge. It's almost sad that we'll have to end it now. For your boy toy here too, he could've had a future, a long life, if he'd just stayed away from you." His look shifted to Dean. "A word of advice, don't hook up with the prettiest girl in the bar, there might be killers after her." Dean didn't bother to respond, he just raised his gun. The guy opened his mouth again, but his partner, who hadn't said a word yet, cleared his throat. "That's enough," he said in a low voice.

Valkyrie took that as her queue and threw the fireball. The silent man dodged but she already threw another. Dean pulled the trigger, but the chatty guy moved fast. He ran at Dean, who moved in to hit him, but the guy jumped, moved his arm and flew over Dean's head and landed behind him. Dean turned around and could barely lift his arm to fend the hit in time. Dean took a swing himself but stumbled and crashed his fist into the man's shoulder. It caught him off guard anyway and now he stumbled back, Dean took his chance and grabbed the man by his collar, crushed his elbow into the guy's face and broke his nose. At the same time he kicked the guy's knees away so that he fell. Dean quickly let go and hit the man again. His brain still a little slower from all the alcohol, he realized to late the man had raised his hand. He didn't even touch Dean, but suddenly the hunter was flying backwards and crashed into the wall of the bar. Ho groaned and wanted to grab his gun, but it wasn't there. He quickly scanned his surroundings for it, he must've dropped it. And then he saw it. The man who had attacked him held it in his hand and aimed for Dean's head. The next thing Dean heard was the roar of a gun. His opponent's eyes widened and he dropped to the ground. Dean could now see who had fired the shot, Valkyrie stood behind the man, gun in hand, her attacker lying on the ground as well. Dean wasn't sure if he was dead or just unconscious.

"Thanks," he groaned.

"Don't mention it," Valkyrie replied with a small grin. Dean got up and Valkyrie pulled a pair of handcuffs out of her jacket's pocket and closed them around the wrists of the man lying next to her.

So not dead. Dean walked over to the dead body and pulled the scarf away. He'd been in his fortieth, probably. He had red hair, a ridiculous moustache and way too long sideburns. His face looked flat, like he'd run into a glass door, and his eyes to small and to close to each other. Well, now Dean knew one reason why he'd hid his face. He grinned, but then he started carrying the corpse to the Impala. He opened the trunk and put it in it.

"Do you know this guy?" Dean asked. He turned around, Valkyrie had pulled the unconscious man up and was dragging him towards the car. He quickly went to help her and they cuffed the man to the back seat.

"He looks familiar," Valkyrie said and nodded towards the limp figure on the back seat. "But that's it. I have no idea who he is, maybe I know a relative of him or something. And the other guy-"

She looked into the trunk and made a face. "Never seen him before. Back to the motel?"

Dean nodded, it'd been a long day and he could really use a few hours of sleep.

·Valkyrie·

After they tied their prisoner to both a water pipe and a chair, they collapsed onto their beds and fell asleep almost instantly. In her dream Valkyrie was home again, in Haggard. She sat in the living room and held her sister in her arms and she could hear her parents in the kitchen. Someone knocked on the door. She put Alice down onto her blanket and got up. She opened the door.

"Hi," Stephanie said. "Remember me? You got me killed. You know that, right? Or did you forget me? You wouldn't forget me, would you? You killed me." Valkyrie ran. Up the stairs, to her room. She pressed against the air, the door flew open and she ran through the doorway. But it was not her room that she entered, it was the bunker. She kept running, hoping that her reflection, no, Stephanie, would get lost in this maze. She ran around a corner and into Stephanie. "You can't escape me, Valkyrie. I'll be always there. There for you. Child." Suddenly Stephanie got taller, her eye color changed from dark brown to green and suddenly it was no longer Stephanie standing in front of her, it was Serpine. "Just a child. What could you even do? Besides getting in the way of course."

Valkyrie turned again and started running again. Out of the bunker. She reached the door, opened it, and-

Roarhaven was burning. She stood in the ruins of Scapegrace's old bar. People screamed and died everywhere around her. Buildings were burning and collapsed.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" She turned around; it was still Serpine standing behind her. But it wasn't really him, inside it was Darquesse. "You can't just leave this behind, it's part of you. Who could even stand being around you for longer than a few days, huh? He knows what you did. He might not care now, but maybe he's just a bit slow and need a little more time to figure out what a monster you really are."

Valkyrie could smell the smoke and it burned in her eyes and lungs. She swallowed hard and turned away from Darquesse, she didn't want her to see the tears brimming in her eyes. But when she turned, she saw them. Dexter, Saracen, Ghastly, Skulduggery, her parents, Alice- they all stood opposite her. "I blame you," they said in a monotonous, cold choir. Then, one after the other, they collapsed, blood flooding out of gunshot wounds, and they started rotting in front of Valkyrie's eyes. Their horrible mantra was quieter now, but the gurgling sound of people coughing on their own blood filled the air. Valkyrie screamed.

"Hey, hey, Valkyrie!"

Her eyes flew open. For a few seconds she didn't know where she was, and then she felt Dean's hands on her shoulders. He was sitting next to her on the bed, a worried look on his face. She exhaled slowly, closing her eyes for a second. Dean let go of her shoulders and Valkyrie sat up slowly. "Sorry," she said with an uneasy smile. Dean smiled comforting. "Don't worry about it. Do you often have nightmares?"

"Not any more, not really. I mean every now and then, is kinda part of our line of work. And I guess with Serpine and everything, it just-"

"Brought back some memories," Dean finished the sentence. Valkyrie nodded. Some part of her wanted Dean to hug her, but she ignored it.

"Well, Sam just called, we'll meet them at the bunker as soon as possible, so what do you think we get rid of the body, put our special guest in the trunk and head back home?"

·Dean·

They arrived at the bunker around 10am. They were both pretty hungry, so dean started making breakfast while Valkyrie brought their prisoner to his new room, the dungeon.

When she got back to kitchen, she helped Dean to carry everything to the main room. When they were done, he looked at her and sighed. "If Sam and Skulduggery don't hurry up I'll starve!"

In that moment the bunker's door opened and the other two entered the room. "Speaking the devil," Valkyrie grinned.

"Breakfast, awesome, I'm starving," Sam greeted them. While they ate, Valkyrie told Sam and Skulduggery about the attack. "So you have no idea who they were?" Skulduggery asked.

"None, but maybe you do. One is in the dungeon and I took a picture of the other one," Valkyrie replied. She put down her spoon full of cornflakes and gave him her phone. "Do you know him?"

"No, I've never seen him before. Why don't you finish your breakfast and I take a look at the other guy?" Valkyrie nodded.

"Do that. I swear I've seen him before, it's driving me nuts!"

Skulduggery got up and left the room.

"So, you two got along?" Sam asked innocently. Valkyrie raised an eyebrow and Dean looked confused to. "Um, yeah, why not?" he asked.

"Oh, nothing," Sam asked. He seemed a bit disappointed for some reason. Valkyrie just shrugged and concentrated on her cornflakes again. She had just finished the bowl when Skulduggery entered the room again.

"And?" she asked. From the way he'd tilted his head she knew that he knew something and that it didn't make sense to him.

"I know him," Skulduggery said. "So do you. It's Dreylan Scarab."


	8. Chapter 8

**Hey everyone, here's the next chapter! :)**

**Though the word count of this chapter is average, about 1600 words, it just felt really short to me, I don't know why. I also don't really like this one because halfway through it I had this idea and then I just wanted to get the chapter over with. And now said idea proves to be very difficult to write. Also chapter ten will be the one in which I will reveal what exactly is going on, but feel free to review or pm me what you suspect, I'd love to hear your thoughts on it! :)**

**I hope you like the chapter, or at least that you don't hate it. I'll try to post chapter nine next Sunday but i can't promise anything!**

08 Scarab

·Dean·

Now this obviously was bad news. Valkyrie looked shocked, but mostly she looked confused. Dean didn't get why, they had the guy, they knew who he was, it was their first real shot at getting some answers. He didn't really see the downside of this.

"Dreylan Scarab. Dreylan Scarab, are you kidding me? Scarab's dead, he died in jail like, what, nine, ten years ago! And even if not, he looked like he was ninety or something, this guy up there is what, 35, 40 maybe."

Ah, there was the downside.

"Wait," Sam said with that confused puppy look he always put on when he was trying to keep up with something he didn't understand. "That guy up there is- dead?"

"'Course he's not dead, I punched him and he went unconscious, how many zombies have you met that did that?" Valkyrie shot back. Looked like she was getting annoyed. He couldn't blame her, this whole case was just all kinds of crazy.  
"So what then?" Dean asked. Valkyrie looked at Skulduggery, who tilted his head a bit.

"I don't know," he admitted. "Let's find out."

The four of them were standing in the dungeon. Scarab (or whatever his name was) was tied to the chair. He was still unconscious, but Skulduggery changed that quickly when he punched him in the face. The man jerked awake, his eyes dizzy at first but turned totally clear in a matter of seconds. He looked around like he was memorizing every detail in the room, then he focused on Skulduggery.

"Pleasant. Good to see you, detective. Or whatever you call yourself these days." His voice was quite low, not as low as Castiel's voice but close to it. It lacked the whole sympathetic aspect that a low voice normally brought, though, it sounded more like he was imagining every possible way to kill you and expressing the thoughts through his voice.

"How are you here?" Skulduggery simply asked.

"What, no small talk?" Scarab asked in mock hurt.

"Last time I saw you, you were half dead in prison and looked about five or six decades older, and now you're suddenly back looking like your son's twin and very much alive and someone has Serpine's power and uses it to kill people, so no, no small talk," the Detective replied, his voice calm but with a threatening urgency in it.

Scarab smiled, but it wasn't a nice smile. "You just don't want to accept it, don't you detective. Not after everything that's happened. Serpine killed your wife and your kid and in return you killed him. That's how it works after all, isn't it? And now he's back, but he can't be, right? Because you got your revenge, and that's what counts, am I right?"

Skulduggery tilted his head, and now his voice was downright mocking. "Wow, you're even worse at this amateur psychology than I remembered. But to answer your question, no, that's not it. The problem here is not my revenge; it is that people who should be dead are suddenly kicking again. Why don't you tell me a bit about that?"

"Have you told your partner about what really happened with Esryn Vanguard, or don't you know it yourself?" Scarab asked, entirely ignoring Skulduggery's comment. Skulduggery tilted his head in a confused way. Dean looked at Valkyrie and her face had confusion written all over it.

"What?" she asked. "You mean have we forgotten why you founded your little revenge club and tried to kill us in an explosion that would destroy a whole football stadium? Yeah, right, thanks for reminding me, I almost forgot."

·Valkyrie·

He had lost his mind. That was the only explanation she could think of. Yes, he'd been a psychopath and a killer before, so one could argue that he'd lost his mind centuries ago, but now he couldn't even remember his own big revenge scheme that had almost revealed the magic world to all the mortals.

When she was finished, he looked at her. "Did I? Well, I agree, that sounds like me."

Skulduggery looked as bewildered as she felt. "You forgot?" he asked.

"No, I never knew," Scarab answered. And this was just all kinds of wrong.

"You never knew?" Valkyrie asked doubtful. "How come? I mean it was your master plan."

"She's a bit slow, isn't she? But then again it looks like you haven't figured it out yet, too, Skulduggery. Come on, it's not that hard, really." That moron was enjoying this, and it was annoying her. She was close to punching him, but at this point in the interrogation it probably wouldn't help anyway.

When Skulduggery spoke, his voice was calm as usual, no signs of annoyance. She would never admit it, but she often wished she had that kind of patience. "Well, if it's so obvious, why don't you tell us?"

Scarab shifted his gaze back to him. "Because this is just too much fun."

They left the cell with Scarab still cuffed to the chair. He hadn't said another word, and they were all pretty annoyed by now and in no mood to look at his stupid face any longer.

They all went back to the room with the big sofa and Sam got three beers from the kitchen.

"I just really want to punch him," Valkyrie admitted to Skulduggery. He laughed. "Me too, believe me. It just won't help us if we want to find out what's going on.

"Well, it wouldn't be the first time someone came back from the dead," Dean said. "I mean look at Sam and me, we have died a couple of times already."

Valkyrie frowned. "Yeah, how did that happen anyway?"

Dean looked at her. "That's a really long story, and I thought we were trying to find out what's up with that Scarab-guy!"

Valkyrie looked back at him and grinned. "You know what, no, I really don't want to think about all that right now. It's officially story-time!"

"Aw, come on, we've been talking basically the whole time," Dean said with a devilish grin. "What do you say, fancy a round of Never Ever Have I Ever?"

Sam sighed. "Seriously Dean, High School drinking games? What are you, fifteen?"

"What, it's fun, and seriously, how have we even gone this long without playing one, it's like the best way to get to know more about another," Dean defended his plan.

"You know I don't drink, right?" Skulduggery said in an amused voice.

This was a stupid idea, Valkyrie knew that. They really should be focusing on Scarab, Serpine everything. And yes, she had been the one to propose story-time, but she'd thought of maybe one hour, two tops. Not of getting wasted, because let's face it, there probably wasn't a whole lot any of them hadn't done yet. So yeah, the whole idea was stupid. That didn't keep her from saying "Alright, let's do it," though. "But," she continued. "But not now. We just had breakfast, you do realize that, right? So we'll do a little more research now, play tonight."

Dean laughed. "Alright guys, it's settled. Tonight, the four of us, Never Ever, Skulduggery I'll think of something for you, don't worry. Oh, and by the way, it's gonna be awesome!"

They spent the rest of the day doing various things. Valkyrie called China again and told her about Scarab.

"Really?" The woman asked, obviously surprised. "I had no idea he was back."

Valkyrie heard it in her voice how much she hated that.

"Well, to be fair, it's not like we've been looking for him, I mean we thought he was dead after all," Valkyrie reasoned.

"True, but I don't like it anyway. This whole situation, all of them coming back- end each and every one of them probably wants to kill me."

Valkyrie grinned. "Well, I'm pretty sure two more on that list isn't that big of a deal."

She heard the smile in China's voice. "Charming as always, dear. Anyways, I would have called you, too, we found similar footage to yours. Serpine, or whoever it is, was in Dublin about five days ago. And then about three days ago he was seen in Shanghai. I don't know where he's now but he seems to be moving at all times."

They made up scenarios what could be happening, but realized soon enough that it didn't help them, so they hung up. "Remember, it's a few hours earlier for me than for you, Valkyrie, and I have an important meeting tomorrow," China reminded Valkyrie.

They all tried to get some more information out of Scarab. Sometimes alone, sometimes in pairs, sometimes all of them together. They tried to talk to him, to threaten him, to hit him once or maybe twice. And the whole time he had a smug smile on his face and said that he would answer any questions if they found out how he'd gotten back.

When it started to get dark outside, Dean got some takeout.

"Demon deal," he said.

"Angels," Sam tried. "Maybe a really powerful witch or something?"

"I don't think so," Skulduggery said. "I mean demons and angels and all that stuff, that's really not our business, only a few sorcerers know they exist. I don't think Scarab is one of them."

"And even if he is," Valkyrie joined in. "When we met him he knew who I was and everything, but he had no clue who you guys are. I mean I guess if he'd been revived by one of them they'd given him the Hunter 101 or whatever, right?"

"Yes, I'm quite sure that it has to be something from our world," Skulduggery agreed.

"Well then we'll have to look there then," Dean said. "Not now though, it's time to play!"

**Btw, if you have an idea what Skulduggery should do in the game I'm open to suggestions! ;)**


	9. Chapter 9

**Hey guys, I'm so, so sorry for the long break. I'm a horrible person, I know. I like to blame the flu, school, carnival and various other things, but that's just what it seems to come down to. Anyway, here is the new chapter, finally. There will be the big revelation in the next chapter, this one is just pure humor without a real plot, though there is a hint to what is going on in it. if you have an idea what it might be don't hesitate to pm me your ideas, I always love reading them.**

**Big thanks to everyone who has followed or favourited this story and thanks and a virtual hug to Alexia, I'm so glad you like the story and I know I'm often behind schedule, but I'm also determinded to finish this, so even though there might be unplanned breaks every know and then, I wont abandon this story, promised. **

**Now I've written way more than I'd intended to, sorry, now on with the chapter!**

Never ever

·Dean·

He was in the kitchen, going through all the cupboards and shelves trying to find the shot-glasses.

He knew they had some, he had found them during inventory, but usually he just never bothered getting them when he wanted a drink.

"They're on the shelf on the right," he heard his brother say. Sam stood in the open doorway, a bottle in his hands. "Are you sure this is a good idea?" he asked.

Apparently Dean's wide grin was enough of an answer, because when he took the bottle from his brother Sam just huffed in amusement and left the kitchen with a smile.

And yes, Dean was sure that this was a good idea. He even considered it one of his best, at least recently. He went over to the shelf and grabbed three glasses, and then he went back to the room he had chosen for the game. It had probably been a meeting room or something once, there was a nice round table with comfortable chairs in it, and the most important thing was that- for bunker-standards- the ceiling was rather low. A mischievous grin spread on his face when he looked at his little construction. He put the glasses in front of three of the places and piled the surplus chairs in one of the corners of the room. He was just about to arrange the four chairs they needed when the others came in.

"What is that supposed to be?" Skulduggery asked as soon as he entered the room. Sam and Valkyrie had the same question in their eyes, but apparently they were too stunned to speak.

"Oh that, dear friend," Dean said with a broad smile. "is a Jenga game. Since you can't drink I was forced to think of something else, and this is what came out. See, every time you are supposed to drink you just remove one piece. And if it collapses because there are just so many things you have undoubtedly already done in your long life, the construction I installed will cause a big bucket of water to fall over and you will get a nice shower."

Skulduggery just looked at him for another second, then he shook his head in defeat.

"Alright, let's get this party started," he said and sat down.

Everyone sat down and Sam grabbed the bottle and filled the glasses.

"Alright, ground rules," Dean said. "Since there are probably only a few things left we haven't done, the one who says the never ever doesn't have to drink, everyone who has done what the other says he hasn't needs to drink. If someone pretends he hasn't done something and someone else knows that they have, he has to drink. If we need to refill this bucket up there one of you guys has to magically do it 'cause this thing is a real bitch to get up there. Anything I forgot? Great. Who wants to start?"

Sam sighed. "Since it was your idea I'd say you go first."

"Okay," Dean grinned. "Here we go then. Never ever have I ever- died." He glanced at Valkyrie. He knew that Sam and he had died several times already, there was no question that Skulduggery hadn't been alive his whole existence, technically he wasn't even now, but Valkyrie… Skulduggery removed a Jenga piece. Sam huffed and gulped down the drink, and so did Valkyrie. "What a great start, drinks for everyone," Valkyrie smirked. Skulduggery tilted his head. "When have you died? Being imprisoned by Darquesse doesn't count."

"When I sealed my true name," she replied. "Remember? I had to be brought to Nye by the Dullahan. From when I entered his carriage 'til after the operation I was dead." Skulduggery nodded. "Right, yeah, that stupid plan of yours."

"Hey," Valkyrie said in fake anger but with a grin on her face. "It all worked out, didn't it?" Before they could start a discussion Sam interrupted them. "What's a Dullahan?" Valkyrie just waved her hand. "Ah, he's the headless guy who collects people who have heard a banshee wail. He's really grumpy, but I guess not having a head does that to you."

Dean laughed in disbelieve. "He has no head?" Valkyrie shook her head. "No, it's kinda silly, even for us, not having a head." Sam looked at her. "No offence, but you work with a living skeleton, why are you so hung up about that non-existing head?" Valkyrie shrugged. "Skulduggery has a head. He even has a spare one." Dean let this information sink in. That was just-weird. Like really freaking weird. But before he could ask how exactly Skulduggery had gotten a spare head, Valkyrie asked: "So how did you guys die?" Dean looked at his brother with a sarcastic grin. "Where do we start?" Sam raised his eyebrows in amusement. "Well I got stabbed, struck by lightning, shot, I went to hell, purgatory, heaven…" Dean nodded. "Yeah, and I sold my soul ant went to hell, I was in a car crash, Gabriel killed me a few hundred times in his Groundhog-day-game, I was shot, I was in purgatory for a year, have I forgotten something?"

The two detectives looked slightly shocked.

·Valkyrie·

Skulduggery was next. "Never ever have I been- arrested."

Valkyrie nodded and drank, so did Sam and Dean. Sam smirked. "Oh this is gonna be so bad!" Valkyrie laughed. "So what did you get arrested for?"

Dean shrugged. "Oh you know, this and that. Grave desecration, credit card fraud, after this shape shifter went on a killing spree wearing my face manslaughter, too…"

"And remember those leviathans that stole our faces and murdered all those people?" Sam added.

"Yeah, I wonder what your former friends at Stanford think of you know," Dean mused.

"You went to college?" Valkyrie asked, sounding more surprised than she had intended.

Sam nodded. "Yes, law school, actually. Got pulled back into the life before my graduation though."

Valkyrie didn't know why, but this piece of information seemed really important. It reminded her that she might have chosen this life, but they hadn't. "Didn't you ever think about going to college?" Dean asked."No, not really," Valkyrie answered. "She grinned at Skulduggery. "I'd wanted to be a detective since I was twelve." He laughed. "Alright, your turn."

The game went on and on and after a few rounds everyone (apart from Skulduggery of course, who had already had to fill the bucket again twice) was starting to feel the alcohol and the 'never evers' more of a way to embarrass someone.

"Never ever have I been terrified simply because I was on a plane," Sam snickered.

Before anyone could say something Dean shot back. "Never ever have I fucked a demon!"

The brothers glared at each other, and then they both downed a shot. Sam looked slightly pissed, so Skulduggery decided to make him feel better and said: "No worries, never ever have I ever dated a vampire."

"Oh that was uncalled for," Valkyrie shouted and drank. "Never ever wanted a goblin to marry me."

"As if that was my fault," Skulduggery replied as he removed a game piece. "Maybe you gave off mixed signals," Valkyrie said. Skulduggery tilted his head. "I dropped a mountain onto her, how is that a mixed signal?"

"Never ever have I been barking at a mailman," Sam started a new round. "It was a curse," Dean shouted back and Valkyrie could've sworn that he had shot her a look like he wanted to make sure that he hadn't just decided to scare the living hell out of a mailman just for the fun of it.

"Well I never got my ass handed to me by a couple of clowns," Dean said after he only got a mocking smile from his brother as a response.

"I have never beaten up an old lady and a priest over the course of under an hour," Skulduggery said before they could start fighting again.

Instead both brothers looked at Valkyrie now, who sighed. "What?" she asked. "She was possessed and I thought he was as well. Turned out though that he just didn't want me to damage the head."

"The what?" Sam asked, a confused puppy look on his face. "The head of some important guy they for some reason decided to display in a church. And if that's not creepy I don't know what is, but under it was half of the key for the Receptor. That's a really weird machine that sucks remnants out of people."

"Oh yeah, sure, why didn't I think of that," Dean said. Valkyrie smirked. "Believe me, magic does come in handy."

"We did mass exorcisms," Sam said. "Remember in that prison with Hendrickson? After we opened that hellgate?"

"You opened a hellgate?" Skulduggery asked.

"Yes, it was an accident though," Dean nodded like it was one of the most normal things to happen. "Yeah sure," Valkyrie frowned. "Happens to me all the time…"

"This demon, Azazel," Sam explained. "He cursed me and a few others when we were six months old and had his own version of the hunger games with us to find someone to open it. This guy wanted to save his family and did it."

"And I mean we opened portals," Skulduggery said. "I spent several months in a dimension ruled by faceless ones."

"And remember when Nadir shunted me?" Valkyrie threw in. "I jumped back and forth between dimensions for about a week or so."

"We had some weird cases," Skulduggery agreed with a nod.

"We once hunted a spirit that could only see if you were drunk," Dean said.

"Which was way too hard to archive for you," Sam laughed.

"Hey, at least I didn't drink demon blood!"

Sam's face fell. "You're an ass."

"My bad mood nearly destroyed the world," Valkyrie said. That alone was proof enough that she was drunk, otherwise she would've never said that.

Soon the conversation turned into a comparison.

"I killed a werewolf when I was sixteen."

"I killed a hybrid monster when I was thirteen."

"We fought in an angelic was."

"We fought in several wars."

"We killed gods."

"We vaporized gods."

"I met Eliot Ness."

"I met Grace Kelly."

"We got the king of hell on speed dial."

"We used to have the Death Bringer on speed dial."

"We were in the wild west for a day."

"I lived through the whole wild west time."

"My one night stand turned out to be an Amazon."

"My ex-boyfriend has really stupid hair."

"Alright, that's enough," Skulduggery said as all three of them started do giggle uncontrollably.

"What, no!" Valkyrie said.

"Oh yes," Skullduggery said. "I just solved the big mystery, I need you guys sober."

·Dean·

They left the room as it was, each going back to their bedrooms. On his way to the bathroom he bumped into Valkyrie. "Sorry," he said. She smiled a toothy grin. "No problem." He watched her go to her room and close the door behind her.

"You so have a crush on her." He turned around a, Sam was standing in the doorway behind him. Normally Dean would've denied it, flipped Sam off or made a stupid joke because he was Dean freaking Winchester, he didn't have a _crushes, _that was a thing for middle schoolers, but right now he was nowhere near sobriety. That's why he looked at his younger brother and sighed. "I know, I'm so screwed!"


	10. Chapter 10

**Finally I managed to post something on time! ;)**

**Here is the 10th chapter, the pace of the plot is now really picking up, I hope you enjoy it, reviews are always welcome, they're what keeps me going!**

Realization

·Dean·

The next morning came fast, he'd fallen asleep as soon as his head had touched the pillow and he'd slept six hours of dreamless sleep.

He woke up well rested, getting that much good sleep was a rare luxury for a hunter. Dean smiled when he remembered the last evening. It'd been one big embarrassment for everybody, but he hadn't had that much fun in literally years. For the first time in what seemed like forever neither he nor Sam had been worrying about the end of the world or almost certain death.

And he was sure that the two detectives had enjoyed themselves as well.

He grinned when he remembered Valkyrie's mortified face when Skulduggery had told them about the time when she'd gotten stuck trying to get into a hidden base in the Alps.

Of course dean Winchester didn't even know words like 'cute', but that slight blush, the angle in which she'd tilted her head- Suddenly another conversation of the evening came back to him. A conversation he'd had with Sam. He groaned, that ridiculously tall bitch was never gonna let him forget that. Suddenly his room looked even more comfortable to him and he didn't really have to ever leave again, right? Cas could fly in every few days to get him a few burgers or something!

Hid thoughts were interrupted by a loud knock at the door.

"Dean, get up," he heard his brother's voice.

"Skulduggery's got an idea how this Scarab guy can be here."

Dean forced himself out of bed, they were back on working a case, there was no time for misplaced self-pity.

When he entered the kitchen, Valkyrie was already there, sitting on the counter top with a bowl of cereal, Skulduggery sitting at the table.

Dean couldn't help stare, she was wearing dark blue sweatpants and a tight black top and her hair was in a messy ponytail. She must've heard his footsteps, because she looked up from her breakfast and smiled at him. "Morning."

He cleared his throat. "Yeah, morning." He gave her a (hopefully convincingly charming) smile and went to get his own breakfast.

"So how are you feeling this fine morning?" he asked while mentally screaming at himself to get a grip.

"Very well," Valkyrie laughed. "As I said, magic helps."

"You have a spell to cure a hangover?" Dean asked. Man, magic was kinda awesome.

"No, an herb," Valkyrie replied with a grin.

"Really? Well that sounds like the stuff they should've told us about in school," Dean joked.

They ate in silence until Sam entered the kitchen. "Alright," the moose of a man said. "So what's going on?"

Skulduggery stopped the rhythm he'd been tapping on the table. "Valkyrie," he said.

"Yeah," she replied, like she was used to these kind of find it out yourself 'explanations'.

"Think about it. What do we have? Serpine, who's been dead for over a decade now, Scarab, who doesn't know you, looks like his own grandson compared to the last time we saw him, he also seems to have been living under a rock for the last few hundred years since he has never heard of all the big recent events. And former followers of Mevolent who turned their backs on him are being slaughtered. I also checked with China, Scarab's grave's untouched, there's no reason for us to assume that he isn't there anymore. So how are they here?"

"I don't know, maybe they are like younger, even more vengeful versions of themselves?" Valkyrie said doubtfully.

"Not necessary younger, no. But I don't think we've ever met them," Skulduggery said.

Dean could practically see her think. Suddenly she looked up, realization written all over her face, and apparently she didn't like the conclusion she'd come to. "You mean they've been shunted here?"

·Valkyrie·

It made sense. Now that the idea was there, she didn't know why she hadn't thought of it before, it seemed so obvious now.

She, Skulduggery and the two hunters were on their way to the dungeon. Her thoughts were racing. If this was Scarab and if he was still looking that young, did that mean that he was from a dimension in which he hadn't been arrested because he had won, or was his timeline different and he was a lot younger than he'd been in their dimension. Was there a Mevolent in his dimension? Probably, at least he and Serpine did exist in it. If they were lucky Mevolent didn't, but when were they ever lucky. Where they still fighting the war or was it won? If it was over who'd won it? All those questions and many more whirled around her head until one caught her full attention. If Scarab and Serpine were here, who else was?

She felt eyes on her and looked up. She caught Dean's eye. Apparently he'd been the one watching her, judging by the apologetic look he gave her. She just smiled at him and he took it as an invitation to catch up to her. "So there are infinite numbers of all of us scattered over an infinite number of dimensions?" he asked. Skulduggery had explained the basics of shunting to him and Sam, but he hadn't quite wrapped his brain around it yet.

She thought about his question for a moment. "I don't know," she finally admitted. "I've only ever been to one other dimension with a ground structure like ours, and I gotta admit, I'm no expert in shunting theory, neither of us is, but I guess it's a possibility. That's a question you should ask maybe China if you ever get to meet her." Dean nodded. He looked like he wanted to say something more, but then they reached the door to the archive in which the hidden door to the dungeon was.

Skulduggery went first and pushed the shelves that hid Scarab from them away.

He looked like he'd been asleep, but the noise of the door hinges had woken him.

"Ah, look who it is, the two detectives and their favorite pets. What can I do for you?" he greeted them, his voice still a little rough from sleep.

"You've been shunted here, haven't you?" Skulduggery stated, not beating around the bush.

There was a long silence, then a grin spread over Scarab's face. "Finally," he said. "Took you long enough, Pleasant."

"By whom?" Skulduggery asked, ignoring his comment.

"Sorry, can't remember his name. I wouldn't worry about it though, he's dead already anyway."

Skulduggery nodded. "Why did you come here?"

Scarab laughed. "Oh, we didn't choose to. One minute we were in our little hideout, the next we were- well, technically still in the same hideout, but it wasn't our dimension any more. We didn't know that of course, so we thought someone had been stupid enough to prank us, so we killed a shunter. This was not so good, because he'd have been the only one able to find our universe again. Didn't really matter though, this dimension is just as much fun as ours."

"Why are you telling us all this?" Valkyrie asked. "As I recall you're not one to give up information that easy."

Scarab smirked at her. "Well, Miss Cain, I'm not. Unless of course, it doesn't matter if you have the information or not, it's too late for you anyway. We're done with living under the radar, not long anymore and we will strike and finally win this war once and for all."

"Which war?" Dean asked.

"Oh the one we've been fighting for hundreds of years in my dimension, the one that you think has ended but is about to start all over again, the war between the sanctuaries and Mevolent."

"Well I hate to break it to you pal," Dean said. "But from what I've been told he's dead."

Scarab looked at him, the devilish smile still on his face. "So am I."

Valkyrie's eyed widened.

"Who else is here?" she asked.

"Everyone," Scarab said. "The building that was shunted, it was our headquarter. And it happened in the middle of an important meeting. I'm sure you still remember Baron Vengeous? Eliza Scorn? China Sorrows?"

They were sitting in the main room. No one said a word, Skulduggery and Valkyrie deep in thoughts, Sam and Dean unsure what to make of the whole situation.

"So this is really bad, yeah?" Dean broke the silence. Valkyrie huffed, that was the understatement of the decade, no of all eternity. Skulduggery looked up. "Yes, yes this is bad. But nothing we can't handle." He got up. "You know what that means Val. We need to go back." She knew it, had know it from the moment they'd found out about the upcoming battles. She also knew that it was way more important than her personal problems, and that it was time she dealt with what she'd done and moved on, it just wasn't easy. She didn't want to go back, wasn't sure she could, but she had no choice. "Well then book the flights, I'll call China."

China. Well that was another conversation she dreaded to have. How was she even supposed to start it, hey China guess what all the mega evil sorcerers of Team Mevolent have come here and their version of you is one of then? Skulduggery nodded and gently squeezed her shoulder before he went to leave the room. "Can I borrow your laptop Sam?" he asked.

"Sure," Sam said. "It you borrow us the money for the flight tickets, pool hustle isn't that lucrative."

Valkyrie looked at him confused. "You want to come with us?" she asked.

"Of course, if you let us," Dean said as if even doubting that was the stupidest thing to do.

"It's not your fight," Skulduggery said. "I'm not saying we don't want you to come with, and I'm sure we could use all the help we get, but that's not even your world and we can't ask you to do that."

"Well it's threatening our world," Sam said. "And you don't have to ask for our help, we offer it."

"And I'm sick of this," Dean said. "I mean I love the bunker and I love hunting, but I've been doing it all my life. I think we could need a break, and if the free time activity is stopping a magical war- even better."

Skulduggery nodded. "Well in that case I'll book four tickets now. And don't worry about the money, it's on us, it's the least we can do." And with that Skulduggery left the room and Valkyrie took out her phone.

Yes, this was the worst thing that could've happened. Yes, she feared what would happen if she returned to Dublin. And yes, the prospect of a new war was kind of terrifying.

But this was also what she was good at, what she was supposed to do. And what she, up to some point, enjoyed. Despite everything, a small smile spread across her face as she dialed China's number.


	11. Chapter 11

**The new chapter, finaly. I hope you like it, not a whole lot happened, but I just love scared-of-flying!Dean so I just couldn't help myself!**

**Big virtual hugs and thank yous to PrudenceLovesBooks and Alexis for their reviews, you guys are the best!**

The way back home

·Valkyrie·

It didn't take any of them long to pack. Valkyrie and Skulduggery hadn't brought a whole lot to the US anyway and Sam and Dean had spent most of their lives living out of a car, so they were used to packing everything they needed in a short amount of time.

Their flight was scheduled for 3:40 am the next morning from Topeka, so they took off at around 11 pm. There was almost no traffic so they made the drive in a little under three hours. They got out of the old Mustang they'd taken from the Men Of Letters garage because there was no way Dean would leave his precious Impala on the airport parking lot.

The check in took a little longer than normal because the elderly woman in front of them constantly mixed up her ID with her retiree yoga class membership. When they were finally sitting in the waiting area Valkyrie noticed that Dean had gone untypically quiet. He wasn't cracking any of his sarcastic jokes ort smartass comments, he was quiet and even looked a little nervous. Maybe he was having second thoughts about going to Ireland, even it was only gonna be for a couple weeks. She wouldn't blame him, she remembered her flight to America vividly. She hadn't wanted to leave, not really. She'd loved her live in Dublin, the life as the sanctuary detective, savior of the world, daughter, sister, she still did, but she'd known that she'd had no choice but to leave.

Contrary to his brother, Sam looked totally relaxed and had a smirk on his face that suggested that he knew something they didn't.

She put down the book she'd bought in the little airport book shop, got up from her seat next to Skulduggery who was reading a newspaper on his mobile and sat down next to Dean.

"Hey, you okay?" she asked.

The way too enthusiastic "Yeah, sure!" told her that he lied.

"Most of the people over there are really nice," she smiled. Then she frowned. "Well, at least the ones that don't want to kill or arrest me."

The older Winchester laughed shakily. "Are there many of them?"

"Oh yeah," Valkyrie said in fake seriousness. "There's a good chance that we might not even make it to Dublin at all, there might be a few hidden bombs on the plane, and I wouldn't put it past them." When she saw Dean's scared expression she tilted her head. "That was a joke," she said confused.

"What? Yeah, I know," Dean said, he didn't sound convinced though. Suddenly she realized what was going on, and it made her smile a bit, considering that he'd spent his whole life chasing and being chased by monsters.

"You don't like flying, do you?" she asked.

He looked at her sheepishly. "That obvious, huh?" he asked with a forced smile.

"Don't worry," she said in a comforting voice. "Even if something goes wrong and this plane does crash- it wouldn't be the first plane Skulduggery and I jumped out of, and there's no way we're gonna let you die." He was about to answer when suddenly they got the sign that it was boarding time. They walked over to the gangway, Dean very hesitant. Without giving it much thought she linked her arm with his and pulled him forward.

"Not gonna let you die," she murmured again and he gave her a small smile.

There were four seats in each row, and Dean refused to sit next to his brother. Apparently Sam was not the most understanding and/ or helpful in this situation. So the younger Winchester got the window seat, Skulduggery sat next to him, then Valkyrie, and then, as far away from his brother as possible, Dean.

"Alright," Skulduggery said. "The flight takes a few hours so you should try to get some shut-eye, it'll be a few stressful days.

"What's the plan for tomorrow anyway," Valkyrie asked.

"I need some stuff from Cemetery Road, so we'll stop there first, then Gordon's and then Roarhaven and we'll see what happens then." Valkyrie nodded. She was about to say something when the plane started moving. It rolled over the runway and when she glanced at Dean she noticed that he was holding on to the armrests like his life depended on it. His knuckles were white and when the tires lifted from the ground he looked downright terrified and on the verge of a panic attack.

"Hey," she murmured. "Relax. We're not gonna crash."

He looked at her but didn't relax in the slightest. Valkyrie held back a grin, he looked kinda adorable when he was this scared. She gently placed her hand on his and started stroking it. "Seriously, have you any idea how often I've already been on a plane? It's all good, nothing will happen." She went on like this until the stewardess told them that they were allowed to unfasten their belts. When she lifted her hand, Dean grabbed it and held it tight. Valkyrie smiled.

"I just want to get rid of the seatbelt, you should, too." He nodded and when both of their seatbelts were gone, he immediately took her hand again.

·Dean·

He was gonna die, he was sure of it. This was how he was gonna go, not in a fight guns blazing but in a stupid fucking metal tube with fucking metal wings sticking out at the sides.

The only thing that calmed him down was Valkyrie's hand in his though he didn't really realize he was holding it. It was just a reassuring warmth that proved to him that he was still alive and prevented a total freak-out. When he'd calmed down enough a bit he was suddenly very aware of the holding-hands-thing he'd normally call chick-flick and laugh off with a stupid joke, but in that moment he couldn't really bring himself to care and when he realized that he didn't want to let go, he just didn't. Valkyrie didn't seem to mind it, so why the hell not.

Suddenly the plane moved like it hit a bump or something and he started squeezing Valkyrie's hand in panic. He felt her fingers gently moving over the back of his hand and started to relax again. When he finally got over his panic he realized that Valkyrie was talking, or more whispering, to him. Until they both finally fell asleep she told him stories, and when he accidently woke her because the plane got into a little turbulence she continued for the rest of the flight. She told him about her family, the funny things her father had done, like lose a mall, about cases she'd worked with Skulduggery and from her time as a Dead Man. They were all light, funny, sometimes hilarious eve, and he found himself listening to them almost hypnotized. Suddenly there was another bump and then a rumbling sound, and for a moment he thought that despite everything the plane was indeed going to crash, but then Valkyrie grinned. "We're there, see, wasn't that bad after all."

About half an hour later they were sitting in a taxi on their way to Skulduggery's house. Dean was fully back to his old self now, which meant that he was embarrassed out of his mind. Great, she probably thought he was a total coward, a total moron who couldn't even fly without nearly shitting his pants. If she did, she at least didn't show it, she acted like nothing had happened.

Sam on the other hand wasn't that tactful, it seemed like he'd tattooed the freaking smirk to his face. Dean tried his best to ignore him, but he was sitting next to his brother and at some point Sam started poking his leg to get his attention. But Dean was used to dealing with his brother's occasional childish phase, he'd practically raised him after all.

The taxi drove around a corner and they were in a rather small road with two burial institutions opposite each other. The car came to a hold in front of the house at the end of the street. Skulduggery paid the driver and they got out of the car. When they walked in, Valkyrie immediately walked into one of the rooms.

"I'll just grab some stuff," Skulduggery said and left too. Since they didn't know what to do, Dean and Sam followed Valkyrie. She was in what looked like the living room and had crashed onto one of the couches. Dean sat down on the other one.

"Hey, where's the bathroom?" Sam asked.

"Up the stairs, then second door on the left," Valkyrie answered. Sam nodded and left the room.

"You know," Valkyrie started. "When I first came here every room was a freaking living room."

"Really?" Dean asked. "What about everything else?"

"Well, Skulduggery doesn't really need it. He doesn't eat or sleep or anything."

"So when did he built in a bathroom?" Dean asked.

"When I was about fifteen. In the first few years he kinda tried to make me go to school every now and again, but it didn't take me too long to convince him to let me work full time. And since we don't really have strict work hours and would work until late at night more often than not I spent a lot of time here."

"So why don't we stay here? Where are we going now?" Dean asked.

Valkyrie shrugged. "It's a bit small. We're gonna meet up with a few other friends and need a home base. My uncle left me his house when he died and it's perfect for it."

"Alright," they suddenly heard Skulduggery's voice. "We're leaving in five!"

They stood in front of the house and Skulduggery opened the garage. The door slid open and revealed a car under a big blanket. Valkyrie smiled as Skulduggery pulled it off. His Impala was the best car in the world, no questions there, but holy shit this car was amazing!

Skulduggery got in behind the wheel and Valkyrie slipped into the passenger seat.

The Winchesters got in as well. "You hurt her I'll kill you," Skulduggery said jokingly and let the engine roar.

Dean had always labeled himself as an efficient driver. He broke more tempo limits than he listened to, yes, but Skulduggery drove through the city at a speed that could only be called suicidal.

Valkyrie looked totally relaxed though.

They arrived at the house about twenty minutes later, it was massive. When they walked up to the front door, Dean noticed the enormous garden behind the building. Valkyrie had told him that her uncle had been very successful, as it turned out Sam had even read a few of his books, but this was more than he had expected.

Valkyrie unlocked the door and they walked in. "We can unpack later, let's just drop the bags and get to Roarhaven," Skulduggery said. Valkyrie agreed, both the brothers just nodded, stunned by the interior of the house. It was not necessarily Dean's style, but he had to admit that everything fit and even though the size was ridiculous, it seemed homey and comfortable. The only thing he felt the need to burn was a painting of a half naked, rather corpulent man hanging above the fireplace.

"That's Gordon," Valkyrie explained with a laugh when she saw his look. "It's extremely ugly, yes, but for some reason I just can't get myself to get rid of it, it's kinda hilarious."

Back in the car, Dean was about to bet nervous. They were on their way to Roarhaven, Valkyrie and Skulduggery had told them all about the city and he was sure that he could a few hundred places he would rather be than there. Valkyrie seemed a bit nervous too, she'd gone rather quiet and was watching the scenery outside the car. He would've liked to know what she was thinking, but her expression was unreadable. Dean looked out of the window too, and that was when he saw it, the city of Roarhaven, in all its sad, terrifying beauty.


	12. Chapter 12

**Hey, I'm back! Happy Easter everyone, I know I'm a bit late but better late than never. There's not a whole lot happening in this chapter other than Sam and Dean getting to know some of Valkyrie and Skulduggery's rather, ahm, special friends, but I really enjoyed writing it so I hope you enjoy reading it as well.**

**Thanks to Guesty, Bananskugga, The Ghost Who Walks1 and Alexis for your reviews and to everyone who has followed and/or favourited this story, you guys truly are the best!**

**And now, on with the story! :)**

Meetings

·Valkyrie·

Roarhaven had changed since she'd last been there. Everyone who saw the city for the first time would probably notice nothing unusual, all the traces of the damage that had been caused by the battles were gone, but only where it had been possible to repair the buildings. Some parts of the city had been totally destroyed and were gone entirely. The city had shrunken, not back to its original size when it had been nothing more but a small town, but still it lacked some of the superiority it had radiated. To Valkyrie, Roarhaven looked ill.

The Winchesters looked impressed nevertheless. She had to smile a bit, they had shown them their life, now they could return the favor.

They parked in front of the Sanctuary. A few sorcerers were on the streets, far too few for a town this size, hurrying through the center of the town and going after their respective jobs. When Skulduggery and she got out of the Bentley, almost all the eyes were drawn to them. Most people just looked and kept walking, but some stopped and stared at them, some with interest, some with smiles, and some with undisguised hostility. When Sam and Dean got out as well, curiosity was added to most of their looks.

Skulduggery and Valkyrie acted like they noticed nothing and Sam and Dean followed their lead. They walked up to the Sanctuary's main door.

"Ready?" Skulduggery asked. He wasn't wearing his façade since he didn't need it in Roarhaven, but she could hear the comforting smile in his voice.

"Sure, what's the worst that could happen? Actually, don't answer that."

Skulduggery laughed and Valkyrie entered the building, the others following her.

The Sanctuary hadn't changed, but even though she'd never thought she'd think it, Valkyrie missed the old one, uncomfortable Roarhaven Sanctuary. Yes, it had been ugly and for as long as she'd gone there she'd never felt welcome, but at least it had felt _real_. This, however, didn't.

"Detectives," a voice said. Valkyrie had to smile, despite everything.

"Tipstaff," she said. "It's good to see you again!"

"It's good to see you too, Detective Cain. The Grand Mage is awaiting you and Detective Pleasant."

He hesitated when he saw Sam and Dean.

"They're with us," Skulduggery said.

Tipstaff nodded. "Alright, if you would follow me."

"Lead the way," Skulduggery said.

Tipstaff led them to one of the conference rooms. Valkyrie followed him almost on autopilot, she knew the way and would've found it with her eyes closed. A more difficult task was ignoring all the staring. Almost every sorcerer they passed stopped whatever he or she was doing and stared at them, and for each smile they got at least one glare.

When Tipstaff went to open the door to the conference room, it opened and a man walked out. He looked like he was in his fifties, had dark, partly grey hair and looked like a usual business guy, apart from the fact that he was shivering. Normally he was probably an impressive figure that you would rather not meet in a dark alley, but now he was reduced to a frightened mess. Valkyrie grinned, China was obviously in a bad mood. She shortly wondered what the poor bastard could've done to deserve whatever she'd said to him, but quickly found that she didn't care. It was good to be back.

·Dean·

The man walked by them in a hurry, trying to keep the last of his dignity by straightening his back and walking as fast as the crowded floor allowed him to. What kind of politicians was that woman that no one found it weird that people left meetings with her like this? He felt a little uneasy when they entered a room.

"Good, you're here," said the most beautiful woman Dean had ever seen. Her hair was dark, even darker than Valkyrie's and her eyes were piercing blue. For a moment he forgot everything but the woman, China, he figured, and the way she smiled.

"Stop it," Valkyrie said.

"What, one of them your boyfriend?" China laughed and wasn't that just the most beautiful voice he'd ever heard?

"No," Valkyrie said. "But if they just stand there all lovesick they can't help us and then why should we have brought them here?"

China laughed again. "I'm sorry," she said to Dean and Sam, and in the same moment it felt like a cloud had lifted from his thoughts and he briefly felt a little dizzy.

"I sometimes forget the effect I have on people I've never met before."

"Sometimes," Skulduggery and Valkyrie huffed in unison. Dean wasn't sure how to react, whether to laugh it off or be offended or anything else. He looked at Sam who looked just as uneasy as he felt (and probably looked as well).

"Okay," Valkyrie said and laughed. "Give them a break. It's good to see you China by the way."

"And you, Valkyrie, Skulduggery."

Skulduggery nodded.

"You know there's no way around it, right?" Valkyrie asked.

"I had really hoped we could avoid this," China sighed and Valkyrie shook her head.

"Nope," she said and pulled China into a hug. Dean, who had always been proud of his ability to "read" people, noticed that although China acted like a hug was the most annoying thing ever, she secretly enjoyed it.

"I'm sorry we have to meet in this broom closet, but the main room is being cleaned right now," China explained when she led them to the round glass table in the center of the room. "I was in a meeting with a delegate from the Italian Sanctuary earlier this day and he was totally incompetent and when I told him so he started to puke."

"You're in a really bad mood, aren't you," Valkyrie huffed amused and not at all surprised.

"Well, what do you expect, not everyone can be all sunshine like you." Valkyrie laughed and Skulduggery, Sam and Dean chuckled as well.

"So here's the situation", China began the official part of the meeting. "After you told me about the upcoming difficulties I informed the other sanctuaries. As it was to expect, most of them thought it was a really bad joke but nearly all of them send someone to talk to me. The man you just met was the Chinese delegate. But leave the political part to me. The problem is that if Scarab told the truth, Mevolent has an army by now. There will be fights, probably even a war, and I need my best soldiers here. I know the Dead Men no longer exist, but Skulduggery, Valkyrie, I think it's time for a reunion."

An hour later they had moved from the small conference room to a much larger room with three thrones at one side and a large table in the center. The walls were all decorated with pictures of men and women. The one Dean was looking at in the moment had a small golden sign under it. "Eachan Meritorious" it read. "They're all former Elders," Valkyrie explained. He turned around. They were waiting for someone else to arrive, someone called Dexter Vex and a woman called Tanith Low. Three other friends of Valkyrie and Skulduggery's were supposed to join them tomorrow, Dean had forgotten their names but apparently they were published writers and monster hunters, as well as a guy called Saracen Rue. Skulduggery and China were sitting at the table at the other side of the room discussing strategies, and Sam sat next to them, throwing in questions every now and again.

"He was Grand Mage when I first met Skulduggery," Valkyrie continued. "One of the other Elders," she pointed at another painting, "betrayed the Council, Sagacious Tome. He helped Serpine kill both Meritorious and the third Elder at the time, Morwenna Crow."

"And then China became Grand Mage?" Dean asked.

"Oh no," Valkyrie smiled. "Before that was Thurid Guild, he's been imprisoned though. Assassination and cover-up for assassinations. After that was Erskine Ravel, we don't talk about him though. The other Elders were Madam Mist and Ghastly Bespoke. He was one of my best friends. They're all dead now."

Dean noticed how sad she looked when she talked about Ghastly Bespoke and the warmth in her voice when she looked at his portrait. But more obvious was the cold hatred he saw in her eyes when she mentioned Ravel. He was sure that there was a story behind this but he also knew that she wouldn't tell him about this now. He tried to ignore his curiosity but Valkyrie must have noticed it anyway because she gave him a small smirk. "That's a story for another time," she said.

"I- I wasn't –" But before he could explain that if she didn't want to talk about it she didn't had to because seriously the last thing he wanted to do was upset her because- yeah, it was probably a good thing that he was interrupted by the opening of the door.

Tipstaff, the weird little man who had insisted on leading them from room to room although Valkyrie, Skulduggery and China obviously knew the way, walked in together with a tall, blonde woman in a brown leather outfit and an also tall, muscular man, whose white button down shirt was opened from the top to the middle, revealing tanned skin. Even Dean had to admit that this guy was one of the best looking people he'd ever seen. He felt a little sting of unjustified jealousy when the man grinned at Valkyrie and walked over to her. "Vallie," he laughed and pulled her into a hug that swept her feet off the ground. She laughed as well. "Dexter, you look good. Being back to traveling suits you," she grinned once he let go of her. "Aw, you're too sweet. Who's your friend?"

"That's Dean Winchester. Dean, meet Dexter Vex." They shook hands and Dexter grinned at him. "As I always say, any friend of Skulduggery's or Valkyrie's, provided they're hot enough. Don't worry, you're in!" Dean laughed. Yes, he felt he could get along with this guy, he seemed kind of cool.

"Charming as always," said a voice behind Dexter and he turned around to greet Skulduggery and China and introduced himself to Sam.

The blonde woman, who had already greeted Skulduggery, Sam and China, walked now up to Valkyrie. "It's been too long," she smiled and wrapped her arms around Valkyrie. Valkyrie hugged her back. "Way too long," she answered. "Tanith," she then introduced them. "Meet Dean Winchester. Dean, this is Tanith, the annoying older sister I never wanted but got anyway."


End file.
